On Tuesday, the city of Edmonton and Oilers owner Daryl Katz announced the Rogers Place project has been greenlit to start construction in March of this year, and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016.

From the Oilers:

“This is an exciting day for Edmonton as we move ahead with a project that will help realize our vision of a more vibrant downtown and ensures that the Edmonton Oilers remain a vital part of our city for years to come,” said Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson. “The look of Rogers Place is bold and forward-looking, just like Edmonton. As part of our downtown vision, it will serve as a symbol of our city’s great future.”

The City of Edmonton and Katz Group announced that the $480 million Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for Rogers Place has been met.

“For the Katz Group and the Edmonton Oilers, we have always believed Edmonton’s need for a new arena was a huge opportunity to help transform our downtown into the vibrant, diverse and dynamic community that is the hallmark of every great city,” said Daryl Katz, owner of the Edmonton Oilers. “We couldn’t be more excited to see that vision becoming a reality and I want to thank Mayor Iveson, City Council, former Mayor Stephen Mandel, and the entire team at the City and everyone else who has laboured over this project for years for their tenacity and faith in this project.”

Things eventually got back on track and, in December, an announcement was made that the new Edmonton Arena would be named Rogers Place. So the NHL will soon have two Rogers-branded rinks, the other being Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

The New Jersey Devils have been incredibly difficult to beat at home. Lately, the St. Louis Blues have been on a roll just about anywhere.

On Friday night, the Blues were the hotter team, handing the Devils their first home loss in regulation in 2016-17. And it wasn’t particularly close, with St. Louis winning 4-1.

It’s a convenient time to note that the Blues rank among the hottest teams in the NHL. Most recently, they’re 5-1-1 in their last seven games, but they’ve been especially impressive since they flirted with .500 at 7-6-3. Beginning with a 4-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 15, the Blues are on a 8-2-1 tear.

This leaves them second in the Central with a 16-8-4 record.

That’s impressive stuff.

This 4-1 win was quite the showcase for Robby Fabbri and Vladimir Tarasenko, in particular. Tarasenko collected three assists while Fabbri scored two goals on Friday night. His second goal was particularly slick:

The Blues are right in saying that this was a pretty fitting opportunity to drop a “Holy Jumpin.”

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk has been the most difficult goalies to score against this season. Leave it to a high-level player like Leon Draisaitl to make it look this, well, “easy.”

Draisaitl scored his 13th goal of 2016-17 by capping this pretty give-and-go play with Benoit Pouliot. You can see the frustration from Dubnyk at the end of the tally, as if he was saying “How was I supposed to stop that?” (though probably with more colorful language).

Draisaitl came into Friday with five goals and three assists in his last five games, so he’s been almost unstoppable lately.